Whitcomb leads UM by Richmond Rain fails to deter Bears

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ORONO – On the heels of a two-week layoff, and whipped by rain and wind, the University of Maine football team might have been susceptible to some mistakes on Saturday.

Instead, the Black Bears took advantage of the extra rest and preparation time afforded by the cancellation of the William & Mary game a week earlier.

Freshman quarterback Ron Whitcomb put together the most efficient performance of his young career, throwing for 270 yards and a touchdown as 23rd-ranked UMaine earned a 20-10 Atlantic 10 victory over Richmond at Alfond Stadium.

While the enthusiasm of the Homecoming crowd of 6,389 was dampened by the rain, coach Jack Cosgrove’s Black Bears (4-2 overall, 3-1 A-10) executed splendidly.

UMaine passed for 269 yards and ran for 192 more, outgaining the Spiders 461-299 without committing a turnover.

“I was impressed with a lot of things on offense in terms of how we moved the football and, in the bad elements that did come in, we didn’t turn the football over,” Cosgrove said.

Whitcomb completed his first nine throws on his way to an 18-for-25 effort. He got in a rhythm early, directing a game-opening scoring drive that covered 12 plays, 80 yards and six minutes.

Christian Pereira came back to snare a ball tipped by Richmond’s Clement Johnson and eluded a defender on his way to a 7-yard scoring hookup.

“To start the game, we had the wind going into our face so we were just going to be a little bit more conservative and use run the game,” said Whitcomb, who also ran for 47 yards.

Running behind a formidable offensive line, junior tailback Marcus Williams took care of the ground game with 119 yards on 25 carries.

“Having Marcus running with success the way he did today and having play-action with a lot of max protection allows myself to have my eyes down the field and not worry so much about protection,” Whitcomb said.

Richmond (0-4, 0-3 A-10) gave the Bears fits with a pass-oriented offense that featured elusive quarterback Bryson Spinner, who threw for 217 yards and a TD and rushed for 57 yards. But the Spiders were unable to convert two critical red-zone chances.

Trailing 13-10, the Spiders threatened to take the upper hand in the third quarter. Spinner’s poised passing spearheaded a 14-play march that took the visitors 77 yards to the UMaine 2-yard line.

On 4th-and-1, Spinner ran left on a keeper. He lunged toward the end zone but lost the handle on the football. Richmond recovered a yard shy of a the first down.

“We went for the 4th-and-2 and right now I’d like to have kicked the field goal to tie it up, but we felt like we came here to win and we went for it,” said Richmond coach Jim Reid.

Spinner quietly claimed he had broken the plane of the goal line with the ball in his hand.

“I reached out and I thought I crossed the goal line and the ball bounced off the ground. No one hit it,” Spinner said.

UMaine made sure the turnover proved costly for Richmond. Whitcomb completed throws of 15 and 29 yards to Gorham’s Kendrick Ballantyne and hit Ryan Waller (5 rec., 37 yds.) on an 11-yarder to spark an 11-play, 98-yard drive.

Whitcomb alertly scrambled 21 yards on a 2nd-and-20 play, setting up Williams’ 8-yard TD burst two plays later.

“The thing that was great was our team responded and took the ball down the field and turned a 13-10 game into a 20-10 game,” Cosgrove said.

Richmond threatened late, but Clinton Brown intercepted Spinner at the UM 2 to end the suspense with two minutes left.

After the Bears’ initial scoring drive, the Spiders countered with Joseph Fore’s 46-yard field goal that made it 7-3.

Richmond threatened early in the second quarter, but Dennis Dottin-Carter sacked Spinner on a 3rd-and-7 play to help UMaine stop UR at the 10.

The Bears took advantage, moving 68 yards to get within range for a 39-yard Mellow field goal that made it 10-7 with 7:04 left in the first half.

The Spiders crawled back with an 80-yard scoring march capped by a 22-yard scoring toss from Spinner to Jake Schools with 3:33 remaining. UMaine responded by driving 56 yards to set up an 18-yard Mellow field goal with 23.4 seconds left in the first half.

Linebacker Fred Lazo’s eight tackles led the Bears. Brown had six and the interception. UMaine’s secondary was tested, but contained the Spiders.

“We were nervous, with some of the things they were doing, about putting blitz on, putting pressure on, because of the man-to-man matchups with their skill guys,” Cosgrove said.

“We tackled pretty well when they caught the ball in the scheme [defensive coordinator Rich Nagy] put in to keep things in front, not give them the deep ball,” Cosgrove said.

Strong safety Antoine Newsome registered 13 tackles for Richmond.

BLACK BEARS 20, SPIDERS 10

Richmond (0-4) 3 7 0 0 ? 10

Maine (4-2) 7 6 7 0 ? 20

M ? Pereira 7 pass from Whitcomb (Mellow kick)

R ? Fore 46 field goal

M ? Mellow 39 field goal

R ? Schools 22 pass from Spinner (Fore kick)

M ? Mellow 28 field goal

M ? Williams 8 run (Mellow kick)

Richmond Maine

First downs 18 22

Rushing att.-yards 24-82 42-192

Passing comp.-att. 18-35 18-25

Passing yards 217 269

Total yards 299 461

Punts-avg. 2-41.5 1-22.0

Fumbles-lost 2-0 1-0

Intercepted by 0 1

Penalties-yards 4-35 9-95

Rushing

Richmond: Spinner 10-57, William 9-15, Dantzler 4-11, Team 1-(-1); Maine: Williams 25-119, Whitcomb 9-47, Zyskowski 3-21, Owens 2-6, Waller 1-1, Team 2-(-2)

Passing

Richmond: Spinner 18-35-1-217; Maine: Whitcomb 18-25-0-269

Receiving

Richmond: Ouden 8-47, Schools 4-55, Tutt 3-56, Wilson 2-53, Dantzler 1-6; Maine: Pereira 5-85, Ry. Waller 5-37, Ballantyne 3-50, McMahan 2-81, Nwosu 1-6, Zyskowski 1-5, Williams 1-5

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